Everyone gets a Trophy!…In the US Army

Sturm Guilford reports on feminization and ridiculous politically correct policies that are tearing the US Army apart at the seams and destroying it as a viable, efficient combat force.

We like to think of ourselves as a progressive, inclusive nation; a nation where all are equal and any individual can successfully fill any job, if only we just try hard enough. In America today, all children are honor students, both teams “Win” and everyone gets a trophy!

Well, we can’t all be valedictorians, and not everyone can win. In some human pursuits, such as war, not winning can be fatal. For years, in an effort of inclusivity and diversity, the Pentagon has bent over backwards in an attempt to place women in combat arms and God forbid, special operations units. If your unit is outnumbered, surrounded, and in eminent threat of being overrun, studies prove it not to be a good idea. The reasons for this are both physiological and emotional.

When I was on a full ROTC scholarship (that’s a story for some other time) at Loyola College, Baltimore in the early 1980s, the coed cadet corps would, from time to time, attend field training exercises at Fort Meade, just north of Washington, DC. One night some of the cadets went over the wall to get chicken, and carouse in one of the dives that dotted the Ft. Meade perimeter back then. Stealthy Scouts they were not, the lot of them were snared mid buffalo wing and mug of suds.

The next morning, after we all piled into a deuce and a half, one of the female miscreant’s college roommate asked her how it went after they were captured. “Not too bad”, she replied, “Captain M. was yelling at me so I started crying. They can’t handle that.” Really? I thought to myself… heaven forbid we ever get into a shooting war, and you get captured by an enemy that does know how to use a woman’s tears against her, and her male comrades.

The problem isn’t relegated only to “Can I lift it?”, but also to “Do I have the mindset for it?” Women don’t possess the close with the enemy and kill them mentality. It’s one thing when Shelia is toggling a mini-gun from the cockpit of her helicopter, and an entirely different mindset, and muscle group, when Britney is charging on foot, across broken ground, with bayonet fixed.

The average infantry fighting load in Afghanistan is 62 pounds. The average approach march load is 95 pounds. The average fighting load is 35% of the male average body weight, but 50% of the body weight of the average army female. During Army ROTC Advance Camp during the 1990s, the female mean test score on the army physical readiness test was four standard deviations below the male average. That is a very significant chasm and that desire, and “wanting to be equal” can never bridge it. It doesn’t matter how times Obama’s merry martinets, Generals Dempsey and Odierno tell you it can be done. It can’t and they damn well know it.

When pressed years ago over a Thanksgiving dinner, my brother-in-law, who was director of antisubmarine warfare at the time, said, “No big deal, just make the rifles lighter”. That’s when I realized, to make it to flag rank; you had to drink the Kool-Aid.

The Pentagon continually focuses on politically correct blithering, sacrificing force effectiveness, and endangering combat soldiers’ lives. What tragedy will it take to finally convince them that they are now and have always, been wrong?

Sturm Guilford is a combat veteran, who served with the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the Gulf War.